Going back into the PHYSICAL world?

I’ve been mulling this decision ever since I got my Trotec Speedy 400 flexx, CNCKing.com (then WoodMarvels.com) was a strictly physical kit seller back in 2008 and since then dropped those physical kits and replaced them with digital files. It’s far less work (none?) with no shipping, tracking, cutting issues. Essentially, the demographic for CNCKing.com was changed from the general public looking for kits to people with CNC machines looking towards buying digital files to cut their own.

Now that I have my own equipment, I can now fully verify the quality of what leaves the shop, something that was hit and miss and one of the major reasons why I dropped physical kits in the first place. I also have an extensive network of people with machines just like mine in pretty much every country in the world too!

That does bring-up an interesting question though, do I keep selling digital files? Dropping the digital files means the demographic that has been enjoying these files will essentially come to the site for inspiration but won’t be able to buy anything to cut with their own machines. The reasoning behind this is I’d be able to fully control who cuts what and when while as far as the general public is concerned, we just sell kits. Going back to our roots!

By keeping the digital files on my site and selling the physical ones as well, I become competition with my digital customers for lack of a better word. The overall thought process though is money, is there more money in the physical or digital worlds?

From past experience, it’s a crap shoot either way, either I piss off one demographic and embrace a new one (that has it’s own headaches) or I leave things as-is being completely general public unfriendly. These kits are NOT CHEAP which in itself severely limits who is a customer on the site, which can either be a good or bad thing.

Truth be told though, there is NOTHING on this website that is beyond the reach of anybodies design abilities and the reason with removing one to put in another is simple, market confusion. When I had both the digital and physical files, I had endless problems with the general public buying the digital and expecting a physical to come in the mail – can’t really blame them, a 10$ digital file vs 200$ physical kit. Literacy skills seemed to have skipped quite a few people and managing people who didn’t know how to read and wanted refunds IMMEDIATELY was just something I’ve been blessed to leave in the past… something that may be coming back!

I think with proper education, I am now in a position to drive expectations back in my favor though. Yes, the edges will be burned, that’s what lasers tend to do with wood, yes, your plywood will have knots, yes, it will smell like charcoal and yes, sometimes things break and you will need glue… the list is endless.

CNCROi.com is growing very nicely now and that experience has rekindled my desire to get back into the physical end of things, especially in the 2D world. It’s ironic that I jumped right into the 3D design world without every considering 2D possibilities… something I’m discovering now. There is so much incredible potential just with 2D shapes that it’s a tough thing to ignore.

A decision either way will be made very soon and I’m very much 50/50 right now as duplicating my efforts for both demographics (CNC owners and kit builders) is just too time intensive.